


Latkes and News Articles

by bette (ferns)



Series: Tikkun Olam [3]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Autistic Character(s), Chanukah Celebration, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Interfaith Relationship, Judaism, LGBTQ Jewish Character(s), M/M, Multi, Trans Characters, but it's not hugely touched upon, the media doesn't understand how polyamory works, this is basically over 2000 words of fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-06
Updated: 2016-12-06
Packaged: 2018-09-06 19:39:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,782
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8766376
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/bette
Summary: The day the article came out was the day before Chanukah, and also the day that Cisco was supposed to leave on a surprise visit to see his boyfriends in Star City.This just added a little extra incentive to get over there as fast as he could without borrowing a lift from Barry.





	

**Author's Note:**

> There's nothing bad in this fic unless you're bothered by the term "boy-toy" which is used twice, although it should be pretty easy to avoid. There's also an outing of a relationship, but the people in question aren't really bothered by it. There's also a brief mention of racism and a brief mention of transphobia as well as the start of a sensory overload that gets headed off before it can get too bad.

The day the article came out was the day before Chanukah.

The worst part? He only found out about it through  _ Barry  _ after he whooshed into the Cortex, waving his phone in the air. “Cisco, look at this article Iris wrote about you!”

Cisco choked on air. “What-you almost gave me a heart attack! What article are you talking about? Vibe or Cisco?”

“Vibe. Definitely Vibe.” Barry wiggled his eyebrows at Cisco, who just blinked and frowned a little.

“Dude, what are you trying to say?” He crossed his arms. “Is it those people again? The ones Iris said kept editing her article and posting excerpts from it because they can’t handle the idea of a kickass brown superhero out there fighting for them? You know you can’t listen to anything those guys say-”

“No, Iris really wrote it this time,” Barry interrupted. He was quite literally vibrating in place. “Do you want to hear it?”

“I’m gonna hear it anyways, so go ahead,” Cisco sighed.

“Okay, okay-the title is…” Barry paused for dramatic effect. “‘Vibe: Central City’s Hero or Star City Boy-toy?’”

Cisco fell out of his chair with a yelp.  _ “Iris wrote that?!” _

“Yep, it’s right here-‘By Iris West’. And Cisco-there are  _ pictures.”  _ Barry waved his phone at Cisco, who jumped up off of the floor and snatched it out of his hand.

“No, no, no,” Cisco mumbled, scrolling down. There were, in fact, pictures, and rather artfully captured ones at that. Despite the fact that Cisco couldn’t actually be caught on film and instead showed up as a blurry humanoid ball of light, there was enough detail left and the fact that he could do that was significant enough that there was no doubt he was the one in the photos.

The first one would be easy enough to play off, Cisco decided. Maybe give Iris a private interview or something to tell her that he wasn’t  _ actually  _ kissing the Star City vigilante Wild Dog, they were just standing close to each other. The picture was shot from a weird angle, it was dark and blurry, easy enough to refute or just say that it was a bad photoshop job.

The second picture, on the other hand…

It was early in the morning, so the lighting was good. There was a criminal tied up in the background, suspended from a fire escape. Ragman was perched on it, mask gone, although his hood was still up. The tell-tale glowing blur that meant that Cisco was there was in the picture was curled up close to him, the light that represented his arms wrapped around the other vigilante’s shoulders. Luckily, the glow from Cisco’s face, which was clearly pressed against Ragman’s in what had to be a kiss, obscured anything that might give away Ragman’s identity.

“Something you want to tell me?” Barry said, tilting his head to one side and crossing his arms as he tapped his foot so fast it became a blur. “Are you really… I mean, I know you, I know you’d never cheat on anybody, trust me-but it’s pretty obvious that that’s what’s in the pictures, so… What’s going on?”

Cisco groaned. “It’s complicated. You remember Rene and Rory, right?” Barry nodded and Cisco continued. “They were dating for awhile, and when we met back when that whole thing with the Dominators happened, they were both kind of flirting with me, and one thing let to another, and then… Yeah. We’re all dating now.”

“Ohhh,” Barry said before laughing. “Does Iris know that?”

“I think so. She’s smarter than a lot of people give her credit for, including her boss,” Cisco mused. “But  _ why  _ did she write it? She’s usually on bigger stories than something that looks like it could be in a gossip magazine, right?”

Barry shrugged a little. “She  _ did  _ say that she was getting a lot of silly puff pieces lately. They give her most of the superhero stories anyways, so it probably got handed off to her or something.”

Cisco rubbed his forehead. “I gotta go.” He jumped to his feet and slipped on his coat, which, now that Barry noticed, had a little tiny little hockey mask patch on it. A company had started to circulate hero-themed patches and buttons; that must’ve been the Wild Dog one. Just because Wild Dog was a vigilante didn’t mean that he couldn’t have his own merch, evidently. (And Barry was well aware that Cisco owned pretty much every piece of Vibe stuff that had ever come out.) “See you next week!”

“Whoa!” Barry grabbed Cisco’s arm before letting go when he tensed. “Crap, sorry. Didn’t mean to. Where are you going?”

“Star City. I told you I was headed down there, like, two weeks ago, remember?” Cisco frowned at him. “Although I guess now I don’t have to lie and say that it’s because Felicity asked me to help her with something.”

Barry winced. “Are you… I mean, this wasn’t exactly a very nice thing for Iris to do, she’s not… Are you gonna be okay? As Vibe, I mean? Or are your, um, boyfriends going to be okay in their alter-egos?”

“We haven’t been very good about hiding it,” Cisco admitted, “and really, it was bound to come out at some point. I’m sorta glad it was Iris and not some random reporter, but now there’s some credibility to it, y’know? But, I mean, I said I was bi in that interview last December, so people probably shouldn’t be surprised when I kiss my boyfriend. Or both.”

Cisco could feel Barry watching him leave and tried not to let it get to him. They were  _ both  _ bi, why was it a surprise to him? Sure, two boyfriends was one more than the normal amount, but he’d thought that Barry had known about his thing with Ronnie and Caitlin before Ronnie died. But… They’d never explicitly told him, and Barry may have been a CSI but he was a downright horrible detective when it came to personal things like that.

Ugh, did this mean that he was going to have to explain everything to Dante? He’d barely managed to grasp the concept that you could be both bisexual and trans at the same time. And the whole deal with Armie was a bit of a mess when it came to Dante, even if he was pretty much  _ constantly _ ready to fight anybody that disrespected their sister.

Cisco ran a hand through his hair, pushing it back out of his face. He already had tickets to Star City, he just had to stop by his apartment to get his bags and the gifts that he was bringing; more advanced body armor for Rene, lightweight and bulletproof and specially designed just for him, and a  _ bunch  _ of expensive canvases and acrylics for Rory. Cisco may not have been allowed in the workshop yet (there was a rule about goyim) but that didn’t mean he couldn’t get his boyfriend some stuff to keep working on his art, right?

* * *

Cisco tapped his foot a little bit impatiently as he bounced in his seat, chewing on one of the apology chocolates that he had found waiting for him in his apartment with a note saying “I’m really sorry about that. Love, Iris”. He knew that there was a good reason to give her the key to his place, outside of the fact that he often invited her (and Wally and Linda and sometimes Joe) over to complain about the crap that got pulled on a near-daily basis mostly by Barry but also by the meta of the week, family members, assorted white people, etc.

The taxi driver had stopped trying to make conversation with him after he’d put on his noise-cancelling headphones and started looking out the window, watching other cars go by and looking at the raindrops that dripped down the window. He fiddled with the tangle toy in his lap, rubbing his fingers on the rubbery bumps. He hadn’t been here recently, at least not for anything that could be properly called a date. Last time had just been because Oliver needed help from Barry and Cisco had been brought along for the ride.

Yes, it had been nice to see Rory and Rene again, but he hadn’t actually had a chance to go out with them or spend a bunch of time with them. All there had really been time for was some companionable crime fighting and some kissing, which was almost definitely where Iris had gotten those photos. She’d gone with them, after all, and Cisco wasn’t always the best at telling when someone was following him.

As soon as Cisco was out of the taxi-which had parked in front of Rene and Rory’s rather large and fairly new shared house-he ran for the door, knocking on it and rocking back and forth on his heels with excitement as he pulled his headphones off and let them settle around his neck. Cisco automatically looked up at the doorframe while he waited, smiling to himself at the sight of the familiar mezuzah.

The door opened and Cisco beamed, throwing his arms out. “Surprise!”

Rene blinked at him in confusion for a moment before tugging him inside and pulling him into a kiss. “You made it!”

“Of course.” Cisco kissed his cheek and slipped around him into the house, slipping his sneakers off and setting his bag down. “Where’s Rory?”

“He’s in his workshop,” Rene replied, and Cisco sniffed the air as he smelled oil. “That’s the latkes. I’m not sure if they’re turning out right, but I think it’ll be a nice surprise for when Rory gets back.”

“Do you even know how to make latkes?” Cisco wondered, raising an eyebrow as he reached into his pocket for his phone. He’d almost forgotten about showing Rene the article.

“It can’t be that hard, right?” Rene shrugged. “Rory makes it look pretty easy.”

“And my mama makes making carimañolas look easy, but trust me, they’re not.” Cisco shook his head. As if on cue, a loud beeping started ringing throughout the house, and Cisco clapped his hands over his ears with a yelp. It was  _ loud  _ and it would’ve been painful even if his powers didn’t enhance his hearing.

Rene winced and rushed to the kitchen. “Shit, I didn’t mean to-” As soon as the smoke alarm stopped going off he appeared at Cisco’s side, reaching out hesitantly and letting Cisco lean into him, lifting his headphones up over his ears. “I’m sorry. Must’ve been the oil.”

He rubbed Cisco’s back gently, kissing his forehead. Cisco shuddered. That had been too loud, way too loud, and the train had already been loud,  _ and  _ he hadn’t gotten nearly enough sleep on said train… He relaxed a little into Rene’s arms, hoping that he would understand. Luckily, he seemed to sense what Cisco wanted, and squeezed his boyfriend as tightly as he could without hurting him. Cisco made a little sighing sound at the deep pressure. He craned his neck up and pressed his lips against Rene’s, smiling a little. “Not the best start to my visit, huh?”

“It’s my fault,” Rene sighed. “I guess Rory was right when he said that he was the only one out of all of us who can make latkes the  _ right  _ way. At least the sufganiyot turned out okay, or at least a lot better than it did last year.”

Cisco perked up a little. “Can I have some?”

“Not until tonight.” Rene squeezed him again and Cisco cuddled closer to his chest before-

“Did you know,” Cisco snickered, “I’m cheating on your with our boyfriend?”

Rene blinked and looked down at him. “Huh?”

Cisco showed him the article on his phone. “The cat’s out of the bag, I guess. It’ll probably blow over in a few weeks, but…”

Rene’s eyes were huge as he looked at the pictures. “I can’t believe they called you a ‘ _ boy-toy’.  _ I’m going to go down there and-”

“Hey, it’s fine,” Cisco interrupted. “I’ve been called worse, trust me. Plus, I’m friends with the person who wrote the article, although I really don’t think she was the one to title it. It’s fine, babe, trust me. It’ll be fine. Unless you’re not okay with it of course, ‘cause then I can tell Iris and I can get the article taken down.”

“I guess I’m okay with it. At least it doesn’t give away our secret identities.” Rene shrugged a little, causing Cisco’s head to rise and fall on his chest. “We’ll have to ask Rory, though.”

“Of course.” Cisco cuddled closer. “Do you want to tell him now? Since the latkes were kind of a huge fail…”

Rene shook his head and kissed the top of Cisco’s head. “I don’t want to interrupt him. Last time I tried I got chased out with a soldering iron, even if it was turned off. Let’s wait until he comes out.”

* * *

Rory stretched his hands up over his head, cracking his back and taking a deep breath. Every holiday without his family was hard, and he usually stayed in his ‘no goyim allowed’ workshop all day beforehand (it used to be that he couldn’t even handle Shabbat, but that had slowly been getting better with Rene’s help). Chanukah was especially hard-the menorah that had been in his family for generations had been destroyed along with the rest of Havenrock, and while he had made a new one for the first Chanukah that he celebrated after the deaths of his family… It was still hard.

He pushed the door to his workshop open, tugging off his hat and putting on his kippah instead, clipping it into his hair. Maybe they could videochat with Cisco later. They’d done it a few nights ago and Cisco had hinted at some sort of Chanukah surprise, although for once in his life he had managed to keep what it was a secret from them.

Hopefully it involved seeing him in some way, most likely over a video. Rory missed him and he knew Rene did too-he hadn’t been singing as much lately when he thought that Rory couldn’t hear him, like when he was in the shower or when Rory couldn’t sleep because of nightmares or because of the memories of his home being destroyed, memories of losing everything, thoughts of Cisco and Rene dying while he watched helplessly.

As he walked home-the house that he and Rene shared was only a few blocks from the workshop, which made everything much more convenient-Rory thought about visiting his family’s graves. There hadn’t really been much left to bury, but they were buried all the same in a small exclusively Jewish cemetery outside of Havenrock. It wasn’t appropriate to visit a cemetery over a holiday, but after Chanukah was over… He could talk to them.

Rory opened the door to his house and immediately smelled oil. He wrinkled his nose a little and furrowed his brow in confusion. “Rene? What’s that smell?”

Rene stuck his head into the hallway, tugging Rory into a hug and kissing his forehead. “That would be the latkes I tried to make. They… Didn’t turn out great.”

Rory snorted and kissed his boyfriend’s cheek. “I told you. You’re a goy. You can’t make latkes.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Rene rolled his eyes and tugged Rory toward the living room. “C’mon, I’ve got a surprise for you.”

Rory blinked and followed him, frowning a little. “What-” He caught sight of Cisco sitting on the couch and his jaw dropped as he rushed to give him a huge hug. “Paco, you’re here!”

“I told you I had a surprise for you,” Cisco said with a cheeky grin. He gave Rory a small kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you too,” Rory beamed, and made a small happy sound as Cisco gave him a squeeze. “We missed you.”

They both looked at Rene, tilting their heads and smiling at him widely as he shrugged and made his way over to join their cuddle pile on the couch. He wrapped his arms around both of them as well as he could, kissing Rory’s forehead as he relaxed against him.

“You’re still gonna have to make latkes,” Rene reminded Rory as he let his head fall onto his collarbone.

Rory shrugged a little, almost hitting Cisco in the face with his shoulder. “Eh. I’ll do it later, we still have a lot of time.”

There was a long moment of silence, which Cisco broke by giggling and burying his face in the back of Rory's neck. “Sweetie, did you know I’m cheating on you with our boyfriend?”

_ “Huh?” _


End file.
